36 21.267N 025 22.172E Santorini, Greece

Pipedream
Mon 11 Jul 2011 16:52
We got started from Ios this morning at 7:00 AM before the wind came up strong. After a text book un-mooring we hoisted a reefed main and the staysail. We had about 15 to 25 from the stern and drifted along wing on wind at about 5.5 kts. At about 10 Am our time we got a call from Katie that she had gotten home without incident. We sailed through Santorini which is a gigantic still active? volcano. The only decent yacht anchorages are on the south side just outside the crater. We are too deep in the water to get into the marina here so we made for the first anchorage.

We anchored in a small bay with soaring pumas cliffs and many caves all around us. A large head boat catamaran followed us in and proceeded to pick up a mooring ball we had not noticed. I donned mask and snorkel and dove the anchor in about 28 feet of water. I could see it laying on its side not dug in with a the chain over the top of it. I notice the cat had left and decided to take a look at their buoy. Nice four prong fisherman's anchor wedged under a large bolder with plenty of chain leading up to the mooring.

We retrieved our anchor and picked up the mooring. About two hours later the cat comes back with another party... Mary calls me up on deck saying she hates confrontations. I dusted off my magic horse shoe and yes it was their buoy but they invited us to tie up to them while the fed their guests. We hit is off with his charter, Canadians from Winapeg, and in a few minutes they were serving us drinks and then dinner with the charter, grilled pork chops, huge prawns, Greek salad, grilled egg plant, sedziki, even apples for desert. In return we spun sea stores and answered lots of questions about our travels.

We head for Crete tomorrow early. It is about 55 miles - 10 hours to the nearest harbor and about 85 to where we really want to go. We'll see how it goes.